1-1     By:  Pitts (Senate Sponsor - Cain)                     H.B. No. 450
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 3, 1999;
 1-3     May 4, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Economic
 1-4     Development; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to disconnection of a telephone call made by an automated
 1-9     dial announcing device.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 37.02(a), Business & Commerce Code, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           (a)  A telephone solicitor may not make a consumer telephone
1-14     call to a consumer unless:
1-15                 (1)  the telephone solicitor identifies himself or
1-16     herself by name and identifies the business on whose behalf the
1-17     telephone solicitor is calling and the purpose of the call
1-18     immediately after making contact with the consumer to whom the call
1-19     is made;
1-20                 (2)  the telephone solicitor makes the call after 12
1-21     noon or before 9 p.m.  on a Sunday or after 9 a.m. and before 9
1-22     p.m. on a weekday or a Saturday; and
1-23                 (3)  for those calls in which an automated dial
1-24     announcing device is used, [where technically possible,] the device
1-25     must disconnect the consumer's telephone line within the period
1-26     provided by Section 55.126, Utilities Code,  [30 seconds] after
1-27     termination of the call by either the telephone solicitor or the
1-28     consumer.
1-29           SECTION 2.  Section 55.126, Utilities Code, is amended to
1-30     read as follows:
1-31           Sec. 55.126.  DEVICE DISCONNECTION.  A person may not use an
1-32     automated dial announcing device to make a telephone call in which
1-33     the device plays a recorded message when the connection is
1-34     completed unless the device disconnects from the called person's
1-35     line not later than five [30] seconds after the call is terminated
1-36     by either party.  If the device cannot disconnect during that
1-37     period, a live operator must  introduce the call and receive the
1-38     called person's oral consent before beginning a prerecorded or
1-39     synthesized voice message.
1-40           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-41           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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